Friday, October 12, 2018

Review Christianity in Iraq

Author Suha Rassam was born and raised a Christian in the
Iraqi city of Mosul. When she went to school in London she started researching
her roots, which led to a Master’s of Arts in Eastern Christianity. That
eventually resulted in Christianity in
Iraq, an attempt to document all the different Christian communities that emerged
in Iraq over the centuries.

Most of the book focuses upon the theological and political differences
that led to various churches being formed in Iraq. Christianity first arrived in
area in the 1st Century to the kingdom of Osrhoene that ruled over
western Iraq and eastern Syria, and was a subject of the Persian Parthians. The
new religion was probably brought by Jewish converts that spread the ideas
within their community. These first followers spoke Aramaic, and the dialect
they used was known as Syriac. The community eventually became known as Syriac
Christians. In the 5th Century the church was recognized by the
Sassanics leading it to be called the Persian Church and then the Church of the
East. This was the start of the church’s split from the western churches that
were followers of the Byzantines. By the 6th Century the Syrian
Orthodox Church broke away from the Church of the East, and became based in
Tikrit, and then moved to Mosul. In the 1400s there was an attempt to unify the
Church of the East with the Roman Catholic Church in Rome. That failed, but
some new churches were formed, which became known as Chaldeans in the 19th
Century. Around the same time, the Syrian Catholic Church was founded, and
American and British missionaries led to new Protestant churches in Ninewa.
Finally, in the 1960s there was another split in the Church of the East that
led to one branch being called the Ancient Church of the East, and the other the
Assyrian Church of the East. Over the years, the entire community became based
around Mosul and its surrounding towns and in Baghdad. That history led to the
current diversity of Christian groups in the country from the Assyrians to the
Chaldeans to Protestants.

The other major theme of the book is the persecution of the
Christian community, which has happened continuously up to the present day. The
first time that occurred was under the Sassanids. Initially Christianity spread
through the empire, but eventually, due to conflicts with the west the
Sassanids massacred thousands of them claiming they were loyal to the
Byzantines. King Shapur II alone is accused of killing 16,000 Christians. In
the 7th Century Iraq was conquered by the Arabs who were at first
welcomed with Christians specializing as doctors and Greek translators for the
Abbasids. By the 9th Century tolerance of the community waned, and
laws and taxes against it became more oppressive. This history was repeated
with the Mongols, then the Safavids, and then the Ottomans who that at first
liked the church, but then turned on it, and killed and persecuted its
followers. In 1921, the British brought Assyrian refugees from Turkey and Iran
to the new Iraq Mandate. Some of that community demanded their own country,
which was rejected by Iraq, and led to a 1933 massacre by the army. In 1959
there was an attempted coup against General Qasim in Mosul, that led to a
temporary Communist take over of the city and attacks upon Christians that
drove a majority of the population out to the surrounding towns and towards
Baghdad. There was a mass exodus out of the country to Europe, America and
other countries during Saddam’s dictatorship. Finally, after 2003 Islamist
insurgent groups especially Al Qaeda in Iraq attacked the church leading to
another wave of Christians to immigrate. All of this history has largely
devastated what was once one of the largest Christian communities in the Middle
East. The majority of Iraqi Christians now live outside of the country as a
result.

The creation of different branches of Christianity and its
history of persecution represent the best parts of the book. Where Rassam
falters is when she goes through all the texts, leaders, martyrs, churches and
schools. Many times this descends into long lists, which is not the most
interesting reading. For example, towards the end the author covers all the
current churches, and their monasteries, archdioceses, schools, etc. Since the
community has decline so much over the years, it’s important to collect all
this information, but it makes for very dry reading.

Overall, Christianity
in Iraq achieves Rassam’s goal of documenting one of the Middle East’s
oldest Christian communities. It’s also less than 200 pages of text so it’s a
quick read. The community suffered another calamity in recent years when the
Islamic State took over Mosul and much of Ninewa in 2014, which is where many
Christians live. This again led to an exodus out of Iraq reducing the church
one more time. Since so many followers have left Iraq it was important that
Rassm collected this history when she did.

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com